


wolf like me

by sassywriterchick



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: AU, Dark, F/M, Or not, Percy is a God, it's a good time, multi-chap fic, they're all roommates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-26
Updated: 2019-04-06
Packaged: 2019-07-02 15:59:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15799851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sassywriterchick/pseuds/sassywriterchick
Summary: He knows she’s a demigod the moment she sat down next him in the lecture hall, blonde curls swaying and those judgmental gray eyes glaring holes into his skin. Turns out, she probably had figured out he wasn’t exactly mortal either.You tended to be very perceptive if you were apparently the daughter of an all knowing wisdom god.Oh, how he hated children of Athena.(or percy is a god and annabeth definitely doesn't like him)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this all in a day so forgive me if it sucks
> 
> also i didn't want to use Rachel so i made up a sneaky ex for percy. her name is sophie. i think Rachel's more important than just Percy's weird ex.

  1. _god of the sea_



      He knows she’s a demigod the moment she sat down next him in the lecture hall, blonde curls swaying and those judgmental gray eyes glaring holes into his skin. Turns out, she probably had figured out he wasn’t exactly mortal either. He thinks that mortals wear their humanness like a coat - gods forced to be mortals are probably much the same.

      Especially if you were apparently the daughter of an all knowing wisdom god.

      Oh, how he hated children of Athena.

      “Why are you here?” she hisses. “If this is some stupid quest your godly self wants me to go on, I am _not_ interested.”

      Percy raises an eyebrow. “Do many gods approach you for quests?”

      “Are you kidding me?” she asks.

      “What?”

      “My friends and I single handily have saved the world at least _five_ times,” she says. “While selfish gods like yourself just sit back and relax.”

      “It’s called fighting Oceanus and oh yeah, _Typhon_. If that’s relaxation, things must have changed in the thousand years since I’ve been mortal.”

      But he’s remembering now the group of mortals that had defended New York from the tirade of monsters and other unpleasant Titans trying to get onto Olympus. There was a daughter of her’s that Athena would not stop going about -

      “Oh gods,” he said, “don’t tell me you’re Annabeth.”

      Judging by the sudden flare in her eyes, he assumes he’s right. “Why does it matter?” She snaps.

      “I’m not here to send you on some quest,” Percy says. “Although if you don’t want to be sent on a quest, might I suggest not actively _walking up_ to a God and accusing him of trying to set you up? There are some gods who would literally…” he can’t come up with the word and instead snaps his fingers, “ _poof_.”

      His father likes to enjoy a sweet glass of nectar afterwards, like a reward for himself.

      “If you’re not here to send me on a quest, then why _are_ you here?”

      He gestures toward the front of the room. “To learn, duh.”

      “You’re here to…take a college class?” Annabeth looks dumbfounded. “About Greek mythology?”

      “It’s always good to revisit your own history,” Percy says, which he thinks is a wise enough statement. “Besides, you’re a daughter of Athena. /why the hell are _you_ here?”

      “Some of us actually depend on this information to survive,” she snaps. “If you’re not going to _poof_ me then who are you?”

      “Percy,” he says. If he went by Perseus, everyone assumed he was the son of Zeus that defeated Medusa. They didn’t think oh yeah, the _new_ god of violent ocean storms. Nobody remembered him anyways, because the old god of violent ocean storms had to make such an uproar when he sided with the Titans, not once, but _twice_.

      “Perseus? As in the god of violent ocean storms?” she says automatically, and Percy’s eyes widen.

      “You know who I am?”

      Annabeth’s face turns stony. “You trapped us in a goddamn rainstorm for _three days_ when we were trying to get through the Sea of Monsters.”

      “Oh,” Percy says. “Sorry about that.” He couldn’t even remember why he’d done it.

      “I didn’t think gods attended college,” Annabeth says.

      Percy plays with his pen, “I was bored.”

      “Bored? Of your illustrious ocean palace?”

      Percy shoots her a sideways smile. “You know it. I mean c’mon, everyone gets sick of kelp after a while. Plus, my father wanted me to spend some time on land to think about my ‘actions’.” He encapsulated the last word with air quotations.

      It’s true that they’re in a college that’s completely landlocked, and sometimes it makes Percy feel nauseous, being so far away from his source of power. But this daughter of Athena doesn’t need to know that.

      Annabeth seems semi satisfied with this answer. “Well,” she says, “just leave me alone.”

      The next class she sits all the way across the hall from him, but he catches her watching him sometimes like she’s planning something.

 

2. _the minotaur_

      The truth is, Percy is rather enjoying his punishment. He was pretty sure he was just he was supposed to sit in his reclusive mountain cabin and think on the meaning of his existence, but he was rather happy with his decision to attend college. It wasn’t like he needed to pay attention in any of his marine biology classes and surrounding himself with mortals all day was kind of funny sometimes.

      If he ever saw Annabeth Chase, she’d glare at him and then turn determinedly on her heel - distancing herself from him completely. Which was fine by _him_.

      He’s studying half heartedly for his ‘natural disasters’ class (even though none of this so called ‘science’ is to blame it’s him and another parade of disaster gods) in the early hours of the morning when Annabeth Chase comes rushing into the library. Her hair is a mess, there’s a nasty looking cut on one cheek, and she’s got her bronze dagger out.

      Later he thinks that she looks like an actor in a play.

      She looks at him. “ _Percy_ ,” she pants. “Minotaur. _Here_.”

      The other students are so buried in their work with earbuds in their ears that they barely glance up and Percy isn’t even sure what they see (or hear) through the mist.

      He jumps up immediately, abandoning his books. “Where?”

      As if to answer his question, there’s a massive crashing sound that emits from the hallway. He immediately runs toward it, reaching into his pocket for his sword as he does so. He holds out his other hand, feeling the water pulsing in the sprinklers on the ceiling and _yanking_. The sprinklers burst, spilling water down onto their heads. He freezes the water so it turns into hard little bullets of ice and has them hover around he and Annabeth.

      The Minotaur stands at the end of the hallway, a huge hulking mass with gigantic horns.

      “Leave this place,” Percy says, his voice growing deeper. “Before you pay the price.”

      The Minotaur had never been smart though and it takes one more whiff of the air and then paws the ground.

      “I’m going to distract it,” Percy tells Annabeth, “the ice won’t hit you. Take the opening and kill it.”

      Annabeth doesn’t look afraid. Instead she looks like the sort of warrior he’d expect would’ve won the war. Percy flings out his arms and the ice shards pummel the minotaur. Annabeth charges forward and stabs upward with a bronze dagger, rendering him into dust that coats her hair and arms. Percy causes the sprinklers to burst again and get rid of any traces.

      “I thought you’d just vaporize him,” Annabeth says, turning back to him.

      Instead of answering her, Percy sways on his feet. _Shit,_ he thought, _used too much._

      The last thing he sees before he passes out is Annabeth Chase starting toward him as he begins to tip toward the ground.

 

3. _life debt_

      He wakes up half submerged in a bathtub, the other half of him being held up by Annabeth Chase.

      He starts at first, the water rolling around him at his agitation.

      “You’re okay,” Annabeth says. Her arms disappear from around him before he can appreciate their presence. He realizes all at once that he’s only in his boxers and she’s in a tank top and a pair of shorts.

      “What happened?”

      “You passed out,” Annabeth says. “I figured letting school officials take you to a hospital wouldn’t be smart, so I dragged you to my house.”

      “All by yourself?”

      Annabeth folds her arms across her chest. “You were half awake for part of it. Do you really remember none of that?”

      “No…?”

      “You half woke up, started calling me Sophie, and then kept saying _help water,_ so I got you to my apartment and put you in the bathtub. Now that I’ve answered your question, I have a few of my own.”

      Percy relaxes back in the tub, letting the water recharge him. “I don’t think I can stop you from asking.”

      “You’re not a fully fledged god anymore, are you?” She sits on the edge of the bathtub and stares accusingly down at him.

      “Wow, what gave that away?” He asks sarcastically. “Was it me passing out, or the fact that I didn’t just snap my fingers and kill the Minotaur?”

      “Could you have killed him like that?”

      “I don’t know,” he says, frustrated. “No, I’m not a fully fledged god anymore. They put a damper on my power. There’s only so much I can use right now, and I drained it completely when we were fighting the Minotaur.” He submerges first, soaking his hair and eyelids and _soul_. Right then he misses the ocean like a missing limb.

      When he surfaces Annabeth is frowning down at him. “Why would they punish you unless you were fighting _with_ the Titans?”

      “Do you really think if I had sided with the Titans my only punishment would be a dampening on my powers?” Percy snorts. “Didn’t you see what they did to Atlas? And Calypso? No. I didn’t side with the Titans, because I’m not _that_ stupid.”

      “Well you’re apparently stupid enough to do something to warrant this Seaweed Brain,” Annabeth sighs.

      “Seaweed Brain? Seriously?”

      “It’s not like you can poof me into mist or send a rainstorm after me,” Annabeth says pleasantly. “You’re down at my level now, _oh mighty god_.”

      “Why do I get the sick feeling you’re enjoying this?” Percy asks warily.

      Annabeth smiles. “Maybe because I _am_ ,” she says. “So what did you do, if you didn’t side with the Titans?”

      Percy snorts. “Nice try wise girl. I may not have all of my powers, but I’m not about to tell you my entire life story.” He stood up, water running down his body. For a moment he feels close to human. He feels the ocean or more the ghost of the ocean, miles and miles away now.

      “Well then,” Annabeth says. “Then I suppose we can discuss the terms of the life debt if you’re not open to more questioning.”

      “ _Life debt_?” Percy squawks.

      “Well,” Annabeth says. “I _did_ save your life by bringing you back here. And I saved your life when I held you up in the bathtub instead of just letting you drown. Because let me guess, you’re susceptible to dying now. And since you’re not a major god, I’m not sure they’ll care enough to revive you.” She smiles sweetly.

      “And if I don’t fulfill this life debt?” Percy grumbles.

      “I’ll find a way to get you back,” Annabeth says, her eyes glittering like small hard stones in her face. He suddenly realizes that she hates the Olympians almost as much as he did. And she’d find a way, because she was a daughter of Athena.

      “Alright,” Percy says. “What do you want me to do for you?”

      “I want you to live in my apartment, and protect my roommate and I from monster attacks.”

      “You seemed to do alright protecting yourself,” Percy says. “And who’s this roommate of yours?”

      “I’m sure you’ll meet her later,” Annabeth says. “Piper and I can fight off a lot, but having someone with water powers and the knowledge of a god helps. Besides - if we put out that we’re being protected by a God, they’ll be more likely to leave us alone.”

      “By a minor god,” Percy corrects her. “And one thats lost the majority of his powers.”

      “Most people don’t know that,” she says. He realizes suddenly what a mastermind this girl is, and how sick of monsters she must be to come for his help. “I want you to swear on the River Styx.”

      Here is a distraction standing next to him in a pretty little blonde package. Annabeth will live what, eighty years? It’s a blink in the eternity that is his life. It’s something to _do_ while he’s exiled.

      “Fine,” he says. “Fine. I swear on the River Styx that I’ll guard you and your roommate Piper to the best of my ability.”

      Annabeth seems reassured somehow. She stands up. “I’ve got to get to class, but feel free to move in. We have an extra room for when Piper’s boyfriend visits. You can use that one.”

      Before she can leave, he flicks out his hand and some of the water snakes out of the bath and soaks Annabeth’s hair. She turns onto him with murder in her eyes.

      “Sorry,” he says. “Thought I saw a monster fly in your hair.”

 

4. _piper_

 

      Annabeth’s roommate turns out to be a daughter of Aphrodite and she is horrified and curious all at once to find a sea god living with them.

      “Does this mean if it’s really hot you can summon a rainstorm?” She asks almost immediately. “I love the rain.”

      “No,” Percy says. “We’re _one_ , not close to the ocean and two, I don’t have enough power for that.”

      She only looks slightly disappointed. “But you’re here to make sure that Annabeth and I are safe?”

      “To the best of my ability,” he says. “I can’t be everywhere at once in this form.”

      Piper shrugs. “Cool.”

      She’s taking this remarkably well.

      Annabeth is watching the two of them interact like she’s watching a tennis match, her eyes bouncing back and forth. Probably strategizing how to make Piper most comfortable with the situation.  Percy leans back on their couch. _His_ couch, he supposes, since he lives here too.

      “What did you bring with you?”

      “Some clothes,” Percy says. “School stuff.” He doesn’t say his mother’s ancient locket, Sophie’s last letter to him and a seashell from his room at the ocean palace. They don’t need to know that out of all the mortal things he’s kept with him - it’s sentimentaly.

      “Do you need to sleep?” Piper asks. “Now that you’re mortal and stuff.”

      “I like to sleep,” Percy says. “I don’t know if I need to, but I like sleeping. Does that answer your question?”

      “And eat?”

      “I have to eat human food,” Percy admits. He hates it, it tastes like dust in his mouth. But too much ambrosia or nectar and he’ll probably burn up. Annabeth raises an eyebrow.

      “Does that mean you’ll be contributing toward the grocery fund?” she asks.

      “The grocery fund?”

      “We each put fifty dollars toward buying food,” Piper says. “You’ve got to too.”

      “I don’t have _money_ ,” Percy says.

      “How were you eating before?”

      “I had a magical stove in my cabin - you’re telling you don’t have one of those?”

      Annabeth rolls her eyes and sits down on the opposite end of the couch. She’s prettier at home, in her element and more relaxed. There is a tension missing from her shoulders that he hadn’t noticed before. “Guess that means you’re getting a job Seaweed Brain,” she says.

      “I have been in charge of manning hurricanes to places where my father is displeased with for nearly a thousand years,” Percy says. “I am _not_ getting a job.”

     

5. _coffee shops_

 

      He blames Annabeth.

      He blames Annabeth for a lot of things, actually.

      Including this stupid job with the stupid workers and stupid salary. Coffee shops hadn’t been around when he was a teenager and he doesn’t understand people’s odd obsession with them.

      Annabeth’s chosen to visit him today and he can see her sniggering all the way from the back of the line. It’s week two of living in her apartment, and he’s starting to know odd things about her he hadn’t known about anyone else. Like the way she burnt toast every morning and liked to sketch in her notebook while listening to obscure podcasts. She’s dressed in a sweater and jeans today, her hair pulled in a messy bun because she’s probably running slightly late.

      He hates how much he’s already started to like her.

      “I like the apron,” she says cheerily, taking out her phone and taking a picture of him in it. Percy tries not to feel self conscious in his green apron and black T-shirt, but fails miserably. He’s used to wearing ceremonial robes and having people bow before him - not demand to know why their coffee is wrong or is too expensive.

      “What can I get for you?” he asks.

      “A white mocha,” she says, and pulls out her wallet.

      “Please,” he says. “Don’t insult me.”

      He makes her drink and even adds a healthy dosing of whipped cream. When he’s handing it to her, she drops a five dollar tip into the jar and leaves, putting her headphones into her ears. “See you at home!”

      Is her apartment his home? His coworker whistles behind him.

      “Is that your girlfriend man? _Lucky_.”

      Percy feels his cheeks heat up. “She’s not my girlfriend,” he says firmly. His coworker raises his eyebrows.

      “Do you think I stand a chance?”

      Considering even Percy thinks the dude is an idiot, he thinks not. Still, who is he to judge Annabeth’s taste? Besides, maybe this will be a nice way to get revenge. He smiles at the boy.

      “Yeah,” he says. “You seem like just her type.”

     

6. _knock knock_

 

      Living with someone, but not being their friend leads to a weird collection of knowledge about their habits. For example, he knew nothing about Annabeth’s past, but knew that she liked mango drinks the best and always drank exactly two cups of coffee in the morning. He knew the name of Piper’s boyfriend and everything about his life - but not her father’s name.

      Sometimes they’d cut off their conversation when he entered the room, like he hadn’t won that part of their trust yet. He’d even already helped them defeat a _hydra_. Granted, he’d needed Annabeth’s help getting to the nearest bathtub afterwards, but _still_.

      He didn’t mind living with them. They let him fill up the bathtub almost to the brim every-night and soak in it until his hands and feet pruned up. It was a small comprise for the entire ocean, but he didn’t think he could face a swimming pool just yet. That would seem too close like the real thing if he could fully submerge himself, and in this town of mountains and earth he’s not sure if he can face that.

      It’s just he and Annabeth in the apartment, her feet propped against the armrest on the sofa and her head dangerously close to where he’s sprawled on the other end. He hates to admit how much he likes it, this easy friendship he has with her and Piper.

      “Annabeth,” he says. “Knock knock.”

      Annabeth raises an eyebrow. “What?”

      “Knock knock.”

      “A greek god is telling me knock knock jokes,” she says, apparently to no one because next she says - “Who’s there?”

      “Mustache.”

      “Mustache who?”

      “I mustache you a question, but I’ll shave it for later.”

      “Oh my _gods_ ,” Annabeth snorts and then she’s laughing, a deep laugh that makes the entire couch shake and her eyes squeeze shut. Sophie wouldn’t have laughed, but Percy’s kind of glad Annabeth did. There’s no room for her ghost here. “That’s so bad it’s almost good.”

      “I like jokes,” he decides and Annabeth laughs again.

      “It’s just - you’re acting like jokes are a new invention. They’ve been around forever Seaweed Brain.”

      “I used to love jokes,” Percy admits. “When I was still mortal.”

      “Tell me a thousand year old joke,” Annabeth flips onto her stomach, and he’s awarded with a very nice view of her collarbone and a hint of something beneath her sweater.

      “I don’t remember any,” Percy says. “Plus I did more improv.”

      Annabeth laughs again. “ _Improv_? Then why did you just tell me a knock knock joke?”

      “Some girl in biology told it to me,” he says, “I just wanted to share. I haven’t been able to get it off my mind.”

      “What about it couldn’t you get off your mind?”

      “What do you mean?”

      “Was it the _girl_ or the joke?” She asks, eyes suddenly serious.

      If he’s being honest, Percy hasn’t given much thought to girls past Annabeth or Piper. He’d looked at that small brunette girl in biology and just seen another Sophie dying on the sand. _No,_ he told himself firmly, _don’t think about that._

      He laughs. “Just the joke. I don’t… she wasn’t my type.”

      “So you’re telling me you were thinking all day about a knock knock joke.”

      He had actually been thinking all day about telling _Annabeth_ , about if it would make her laugh. Sophie hadn’t had much of a sense of humor, but it seemed like Annabeth did. Percy likes knock knock jokes he decides, like people like Mac and cheese.

      Piper comes in then and Percy decides to forget about whether or not he wanted to tell Annabeth the joke.

      “Piper!” he exclaims. “Knock knock!”

     

7. _Chase_

 

      Annabeth sits next to him for the first time since the beginning of the semester in Classical Mythology and she acts like she’s never _not_ sat next to him. Instead she steals one of his pens and then leans back in her chair.

      “ _So_ ,” she says.

      “So,” Percy says, sighing and grabbing another pen from his bag.

      “Your coworker asked me out.”

      “Which one?”

      “He’s like an inch shorter than you. Brown hair and blue eyes,” she says. “I just ran into him outside.”

      “Ah,” Percy says. “What was his name again?”

      Annabeth glares at him, “Chase.”

      Percy probably shouldn’t laugh, but he does anyways. He laughs so hard that he’s attracting looks from the other students arriving to class. It brings tears to his eyes. “You’re kidding me? _Chase_? He could take your last name and be _Chase Chase.”_

      Annabeth crosses her arms, the pen tapping against her arm. “I don’t know what the humor was like in Ancient Greece, but I’m pretty sure nobody thought you were funny.” She’s lying, he decides. There’s a sneaky little smile playing at the corner of her mouth that says otherwise.

      Percy wipes an actual tear of mirth from his eye. “Well what did you say?”

      “I said yes,” she says and suddenly it’s not as funny anymore. He doesn’t know what this feeling in his stomach is, but it fills his chest uncomfortably. He blames this weird half mortal body and Annabeth’s gray sweater that brings out the color of her eyes. Instead of thinking of Annabeth, he decides to think of Athena. Angry, rational Athena who would torment him for the rest of existence if he ever did anything with her daughter. He just thought Annabeth was…appealing.

      “Cool,” Percy says. He scratches the back of his head. Considering he’s a thousand year old god, he thinks he should know what to say right then and there. Then again, Annabeth’s never been easy to talk to. “You know that my oath of protection extends to him right?”

      “What do you mean?” Annabeth asks.

      “If you feel like he’s… if you’re not comfortable. Shoot me a text and I’ll be there. Same goes for any boy.” He’s pretty sure his face is red now, and Annabeth is probably laughing at him.

      “Thanks Percy,” she says instead. Before he can say anything else class begins. He’s left wishing he still had his violent sea storm powers to sweep a real knocker overland and into Chase’s house. Then again, he has himself to blame for this. _Wow Percy,_ he thinks to himself, _for a thousand years old you are really a complete idiot._

8. _Poseidon_

      Percy’s leaving his English class (not his best subject, English is technically his second language after all) when he catches a strong smell of the ocean and turns to see his father leaning against a nearby building.

      “I thought you weren’t going to visit me,” Percy says. “You know, let the punishment sink in and all that.”

 _“_ Perseus,” his father says. Percy adopted the nickname _Percy_ three centuries ago, but his father refused to call him that. Percy thought it was to show that _he_ had a cool son named Perseus as well. Not that many people remembered that, after all.

      “Yes?” Percy asks.

      “I just heard that you’ve sworn an oath to a _daughter of Athena,_ ” his father storms. “Did you learn nothing after Sophie?”

      Sophie is a cruel reminder, a blood stain spreading across the stain. _How can I forget,_ Percy wants to ask, _when you’re the one who killed her?_ But he doesn’t say that. He just holds his tongue like the good little son that he is and doesn’t look his father in the eyes.

      “The fact is, you’ve sworn an oath you can’t get out of,” his father says. “I doubt she even knows the extent of it - you’re sworn to her for the rest of her mortal life. What did I teach you about swearing on the Styx?”

      Percy shrugs. “I was bored.”

      “Speaking of you being bored,” his father says. “Why are you enrolled in college?”

      “To learn about the people who’s lives we’re constantly ruining,” Percy says, “seems like a courtesy really.”

      His father’s eyes spark, but Percy has killed enough people for Poseidon that it doesn’t affect him anymore. Instead he merely leans against the brick wall and waits it out. Finally his father sighs.

      “She’ll be dead in eighty years anyways,” he says. “Just don’t let it be a repeat of Sophie, you hear me?”

      “Okay,” Percy says - _dark blue eyes, a kiss in the dark, a promise -_ “But send an ocean storm to the west coast. They’re like literally on _fire_.”

      “If you hadn’t messed up you could have done it yourself,” Poseidon says, and disappears in a mist of sea vapor. Percy thinks this little visit has gone unnoticed for about two seconds before Piper is bounding up to him.

      “I could hear the Ancient Greek arguing from all the way in the physics hall,” she says brightly. “Family argument?”

      “You know how it is,” Percy says. “Technically we’re all apart of the same huge, fucked up family.”

      “Amen to that brother,” Piper says. Before he can think too much about his father or Sophie, Piper winds her arm through his and yanks him off into campus. “Let’s go get coffee.”

      “Not at Starbucks,” Percy grumbles. “I think Chase is working today.”                     “Ah-ha!” Piper sings. “I knew you didn’t like Chase. I knew it.”

      Annabeth had come home late the night before smelling like sweat and beer. She hadn’t noticed Percy on the couch waiting for her and had instead went into the kitchen, guzzled an entire container of orange juice, and then gone to sleep like nothing had happened.

      “Chase is a tool.”

      Piper sighs. “I know. But he’s a pretty tool and Annabeth sometimes needs a pretty tool. Like you.” She cackles at the look on Percy’s face and assures him she was joking, but he doesn’t know if _he_ believes it. If Annabeth truly liked pretty tools, she probably should have fallen for him the minute he awkwardly stumbled into her life.

      “Whatever. I feel like she’s going to chew Chase up and spit him out.”

      “Is that what you want her to do to you?” Piper asks, eyeing Percy. “Oh my god - you _do_.” She pressed her face against his shoulder.

      “I admitted nothing.”

      “My cute little godly boy,” she says, pretending to wipe a tear from her eye. “Growing up at last.’’

      Percy likes Piper, in the way that he’s never liked all the other younger siblings Poseidon seems to churn out at regular intervals.

      “I don’t know if I like her,” Percy says honestly. “She’s just - _Annabeth_.”

      They find a small coffee shop called True Creek and sit down in one of the booths along the wall. Piper goes up to order their drinks, and Percy leans back against the seat. When he was a god, it had been easy to pretend that he wasn’t tired. He hadn’t needed to sleep. But now that he was mortal and had been mortal for some time - he found a bone deep tired in his bones. He found that he didn’t really want to going back to being a god.

      “Here,” Piper says, “double shot god boy, because you need it.”

      “Did you ever tell any of your other friends about me?” Percy asks, taking a long sip. Piper bites her lip and fusses with the ends of her sleeves.

      “No,” she finally admits. “This entire thing was Annabeth’s idea really. She hasn’t really told anyone and I followed her lead because I don’t think she wants to admit to everyone that she’s not capable. She’s still trying to prove to everyone that she can live a normal life.”

      It’s a testament to Annabeth’s character, Percy thinks, that she’s not easily broken.

      “Did you fight in the last war?”

      “No,” Piper says, “I didn’t even know I was a demigod.”

      “It was chaos,” Percy says. “The gods were fighting Typhon and Annabeth and the other members of Camp Half Blood were fighting to keep Olympus on their own,” he looks down at his hands. “And most of these gods barely thought about their children. But here all of them were, fighting and _dying_ \- “

      “Did you ever have any kids with mortal women?” Piper asks. “Or men?”

      “I had one daughter in the sixteenth century,” Percy admits. “She died before her fifteenth birthday.”

      “Oh,” Piper says, a hand over her mouth. “Percy - “

      “It’s fine,” he says. “Really. It’s been like five hundred years. But that’s my point. I barely remember what she _looked_ like anymore. I don’t think Annabeth’s afraid she’s not capable, I think she’s just tired.”

      Like he was.

      “Do you want to go back to being a god?” Piper asks. “I mean, it’s just - most of the gods love being godly and then you kind of are just okay with it - “

      Percy shrugs. “I like being mortal sometimes. You notice more.”

      “Like what?”

      “Like colors,” he says. “They flare brighter. Scents are more intoxicating. People are nicer and less afraid of you.”

      “Is there anything you miss?” she asks.

      He almost says _Sophie,_ but catches himself. “The ocean,” he says instead. “The way it’s so quiet and dark when you sink to the bottom that there’s nothing else around you.”

      Piper smiles around her coffee cup. “You’ll have to take me sometime.”

      Percy thinks for the first time in a long time that he’s made a friend. And maybe he likes it.

 

9. _Jason_

      The way he meets Piper’s boyfriend and best friend isn’t exactly the way he’s expecting.

      He was just trying to learn how to cook. As an experiment. And the fact was, he kept burning it so he took off everything but his boxers because he kept having to soak himself and the kitchen in water and it was getting annoying to keep changing clothes. He’d also disabled the fire alarm before he’d begun because he felt like he was the best fire extinguisher there _was_.

      When someone opens the door he immediately calls out, “I promise I’ll clean it all up - “ and doesn’t even consider the possibility that it’s someone else. That is, until there’s a two boys entering the kitchen looking like they’re entering a war zone.

      Percy, who had been currently trying to get the water on the floor back into the sink freezes when he realizes it’s neither Piper nor Annabeth and the water splashes back onto the floor.

      “Uh - “ the shorter boy says, “Who are you?”

      Percy’s hands shoot upwards and the water rises with it, swirling around him in a thin tendril. “I think I should be asking you that question.”

      “What are you a water bender or something?” the shorter boy snorts.

      “Percy!” Piper arrives two seconds too late, panting in the doorway. “My boy - ah. I see you’ve all already met each other.” Then she frowns.

      “I was going to clean it up!” Percy says defensively.

      “Are you cooking in your boxers?” Piper snorts. “Are you trying - oh my god. Please tell me you didn’t scorch our best pan.”

      “I’ll buy a new one,” Percy says hurriedly. He feels rather exposed, standing there in his boxers. The blonde boy is staring at him in shock, like he’s never seen such a thing.

      “Ah Pipes,” the talkative one says, “are you going to explain why there’s a hot naked man standing in your kitchen setting it on fire?”

      Piper grimaces. “He’s just your… er - friendly neighborhood water god?”

      The apartment door bangs open again and Annabeth’s voice calls out. “Piper you here? I haven’t gotten a chance to tell Jason and Leo about Percy, what is - “ she too stops in the doorway of the kitchen, her face a mask of horror.

      “Look,” Piper says, gesturing towards the five of them. “They’ve met.”

      “Why are you just wearing boxers?” Annabeth asks, and Percy goes bright red.

      “I was trying to cook - “ he says at the same time the one he assumes is Leo goes -

      “Is that Annabeth’s new boyfriend? She’s dating a water god?”

      “NO!” Annabeth and Percy say in unison.

      “And right now I’m not - I’m mortal. I’m just here to help out,” Percy says awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head. “And I’m going to put on some clothes.” He announces.

      “Good idea,” Annabeth says. “Also - why does it smell like smoke? Is this supposed to be a grilled cheese?”

      Percy changes into jeans and a blue T-shirt ,but hesitates in joining the rest of them. Instead he pauses and presses his ear against his bedroom door.

      “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” Piper is saying, “but I knew you’d both freak out and Annabeth and I are entirely _capable_.”

      “The god of violent sea storms?” Who he assumes is Jason asks. “What are you thinking Pipes? He might not be well known, but do you know how many people his father has commanded him to kill?”

      “He’s nice,” Piper insists.

      “And he’s sworn to protect us,” Annabeth says. “It’s not like you can break an oath on the River Styx.”

      “Which was your plan I’m guessing?” Leo asks. “Gods, saving a dude’s life so he can enter lifelong servitude to you seems pretty cruel.”

      “I need to have my eye on him,” Annabeth says defensively. “I couldn’t just let a god of violent sea storms walk around. But he’s relatively harmless right now, he’s being punished for something he did in the Titan wars. He can only use a fraction of his power.”

      Percy decides now is as good of a time to make his entrance as any. He steps into the hallway. “Not something I did,” he corrects, “something I _didn’t_ do.”

      He doesn’t look at Annabeth. He doesn’t really want her to see that he thought she… what? That he thought she and Piper were his friends?

      “Percy - “

      “It’s fine,” he says. There’s a knock at the door.

      “That’ll be Chase,” Annabeth says softly. He can feel her gray eyes on him, cold and calculated. Whatever warmth he had imagined between them was gone. _Knock knock_.

      “I’m going out,” he says, crossing to the door and pulling a jacket off the hook. “Think you can handle yourself for one night? Or do you need your servant’s help?”

      Annabeth doesn’t back down. She only stares him down like she’s probably stared down every opponent in her life. Unflinching. “I think we’ll be fine, thanks,” she says coldly.

      He makes sure to bump into Chase on his way out.

 

10. _the return_

      He is back on the couch when they get home all flushed and laughing and happy. Refreshingly _human_.

      He feels a dark sort of anger broiling inside of him to see Chase holding Annabeth’s hand. He feels the shadow of their _almost_ friendship and thinks it’s kind of funny that for once he wasn’t the one calling the storm, but it was _Annabeth_.

      “Annabeth,” he says, standing up. “We need to talk.”

      “One second,” she whispers to Chase and waves off the others as she follows him into the hallway and then down the steps and outside.

      “I want to make things clear with our relationship,” he says.

      “Oh yeah?” She crosses her arms like she’s chilled, but really he thinks it’s just to make her look more powerful.

      “I swore to protect you and Piper,” he says.

      “I was there.”

      “So, if you remember, I didn’t swear to protect _them_ ,” he gestures to the apartment. “You didn’t say protect me and all my friends. You said you and _Piper_.”

      “Are you threatening me Percy?” She asks. There is a dangerous note to her voice, a narrowing of her eyes. He is playing with fire here, but then again - she’d decided to play with a hurricane.

      “I am not some foolish river god you’ve swayed to your side,” he says. “I may be in exile soon, but it’s a relatively short punishment. What I’m saying is maybe you shouldn’t trust all the deals you make.”

      “If you hurt them - “

      “You’ll what?” He snarls. “You and I both know what gods do when they’re angry. We know better than _anyone_. Do you think I didn’t hear about Luke?”

He leaves Annabeth standing with her arms crossed and looking like she was a million miles away in her head.


	2. a teaser and a question

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *emerges from the grave*  
> hi  
> so  
> i kept getting asks and comments that were like ??? are you continuing this?? and i reread it and i was like fuck this is actually pretty good and LONG STORY SHORT  
> i want to know if anyone would still care to read this :) so here's a teaser of part two as well bc im an awful person who didn't update for seven months

11\. _understanding_

 

He and Annabeth have reached a new standing with each other. Percy realized her true intentions, her _trickery_ \- Annabeth realized that she was playing with forces she didn’t understand.

(This, of course, was disregarding the shame Percy still felt about the entire thing. He was a _god_ but couldn’t stop being tricked by mortals.)

Jason and Leo were merely hanging around during fall break and it was easy enough to keep out of their way. He worked several shifts at the coffee shop and spent the remainder of his time in the library doing homework. He’s struggling through his most recent English essay when he realized how _pointless_ this entire thing was. He had come to college looking for a respite for his boredom and had instead found trouble.

That’s when trouble found him.

The campus had been pretty much cleared out for fall break and Percy was one of the only ones working in the library. Until suddenly, he wasn’t.

Trouble looks nice today, he reflects. Wrapped in dark jeans and a blue sweater, she plops down her hardcopy of the Odyssey and sits in the chair across from him.

Annabeth doesn’t look friendly today, merely determined.

“I want to apologize,” she says. “I didn’t think of who I was dealing with.”

She’s not saying this out of any kindness or respect toward him, he knows, but merely because she’s worried he’ll harm her friends.

“From now on, let’s be straightforward.”

“Sure,” Percy says.

“I don’t trust you,” she says, leaning forward. “You can be as mad at me as you want for tricking you into serving an oath, but you’ve commanded storms of death and destruction for Poseidon for _centuries_.Reduced powers or not, I couldn’t leave that just walking around.”

“Has anyone ever told you that Gods aren’t forces to be reckoned with?”

Annabeth smiles, but it’s more of a baring of teeth. Less of a show of amusement and more of a challenge. “They’ve tried, but I think the message was lost.”

“If we’re being honest with each other,” Percy says, “I want you to know I’m not your servant to boss around. You told me to protect you and Piper and that is _all_ I’m going to be doing for you anymore. There’s no more free coffees, no more conversations, no more helping Piper with her history classes. Understood?”

Annabeth’s mouth settles into a firm line. She’s a warrior, this one. “Understood.”

 


	3. chained to a lie (we're the same you and i)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> important note: this story is set in the year 2018 (which i know doesn't really go along with the whole pjo timeline but tbh none of his books really follow a real year timeline anyways) 
> 
> WOW! thanks to everyone who commented and said they'd like more, you guys are so incredible. here is the long awaited chapter two!  
> i think i've decided that this is going to be a longer story, but let me know if you'd rather it be shorter!  
> (i also promise it won't be SEVEN MONTHS before i update again)  
> thank you!!  
> ALSO  
> if some of this is slightly weird with pt 1 it's because i couldn't remember for the LIFE OF ME who sophie was supposed to be so i had to re-come up with ideas.  
> chapter title is from the song 'cold love' by rainbow kitten surprise, 10/10 recommend

11\. understanding

 

He and Annabeth have reached a new standing with each other. Percy realized her true intentions, her _trickery_ \- Annabeth realized that she was playing with forces she didn’t understand.

(This, of course, was disregarding the shame Percy still felt about the entire thing. He was a _god_ but couldn’t stop being tricked by mortals.)

Jason and Leo were merely hanging around during fall break and it was easy enough to keep out of their way. He worked several shifts at the coffee shop and spent the remainder of his time in the library doing homework. He’s struggling through his most recent English essay when he realized how _pointless_ this entire thing was. He had come to college looking for a respite for his boredom and had instead found trouble.

That’s when trouble found him.

The campus had been pretty much cleared out for fall break and Percy was one of the only ones working in the library. Until suddenly, he wasn’t.

Trouble looks nice today, he reflects. Wrapped in dark jeans and a blue sweater, she plops down her hardcopy of the Odyssey and sits in the chair across from him.

Annabeth doesn’t look friendly today, merely determined.

“I want to apologize,” she says. “I didn’t think of who I was dealing with.”

She’s not saying this out of any kindness or respect toward him, he knows, but merely because she’s worried he’ll harm her friends.

“From now on, let’s be straightforward.”

“Sure,” Percy says.

“I don’t trust you,” she says, leaning forward. “You can be as mad at me as you want for tricking you into serving an oath, but you’ve commanded storms of death and destruction for Poseidon for _centuries_.Reduced powers or not, I couldn’t leave that just walking around.”

“Has anyone ever told you that Gods aren’t forces to be reckoned with?”

Annabeth smiles, but it’s more of a baring of teeth. Less of a show of amusement and more of a challenge. “They’ve tried, but I think the message was lost.”

“If we’re being honest with each other,” Percy says, “I want you to know I’m not your servant to boss around. You told me to protect you and Piper and that is _all_ I’m going to be doing for you anymore. There’s no more free coffees, no more conversations, no more helping Piper with her history classes. Understood?”

Annabeth’s mouth settles into a firm line. She’s a warrior, this one. “Understood.”

 

12\. blue cookies

 

Jason and Leo leave full of half hearted threats toward Percy to make sure he behaves, and longing looks toward Piper and Annabeth like they’re _begging_ for them to change their mind. They’re stuck with Percy now, a fact that Annabeth understands and Piper has just started to acknowledge.

He’s in the university library in the most secluded corner he could find, buried three feet in homework.

He’s seriously debating dropping out of college, but at this point there’s not really a point. What would he do instead, sit in their apartment all day and mope?

If he’s being honest with himself, there’s a sort of convoluted mess of shame and something like sadness pulsing through him. He’d liked Annabeth, he realized, more than he thought he ever would.

Of course he had.

He dropped his forehead to the dining room table, inwardly cursing this piece of biology homework. Why was he trying so hard? Did he somehow think that it would _matter_ if he had a college degree?

Someone drops something on the table next to him and he flinched into awareness, hand grasping for a sword that wasn’t there.

“Chill,” Piper says, “It’s just me.”

She’s dropped a paper bag, and she nudges it toward him. He opens it warily expecting to find what? A bomb? Instead, there’s a pretty cookie with blue frosting.“Oh,” he says, another wave of sadness washing through him. He’s looking at this cookie and remembering his mother’s fingers moving through his air, her voice in a long forgotten language whispering _are you sure this is the right choice?_

“What?”

“I - thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Piper says happily. “Look, I don’t know whatever weird sexual tension love-hate fight thing you’ve got going with Annabeth, but I want nothing to do with it.”

“There’s no weird sexual — “

“Is it you that’s been alive for a thousand years, or me?”

Percy wisely decides to let the matter drop. “Look,” he says, “I tried to be your friend, but obviously that meant different things to different people. I’m not stupid enough to let myself get too attached to mortals again — “

“Again?” Piper inserts, leaning forward with a mischievous look in her eye.

For someone as old as Percy, he thinks, he really should know when to shut his mouth.

“Look, Piper — “

Piper sighs and sits back with a pitiful look on her face. “ _C’mon_ Percy.”

“Those eyes don’t work on me.”

“If you have to say that, it means they already are,” she leans forward and then gestures at the cookie. “I’ve started working at a bakery. If you help me with my history homework I’ll become your regular supplier.”

He should say no, but Percy has always been partial to friends — cookies. He decides he was doing this for the cookies, even if they tasted like ash compared to what he was used to eating.

“Let me see it,” he finally says, and Piper beams at him.

 

13\. crazy

 

“You live with Annabeth still, don’t you man?” Chase asks one slow shift. He’s tapping a pen against a coffee mug anxiously.

“Yeah,” Percy says shortly.

“Look, man, do you ever notice anything _off_ about her?”

“Off how?”

“I don’t know,” Chase mutters, clearly uncomfortable. “She’s just - _I don’t know man._ Weird.”

Percy accidentally crumples the empty disposable coffee cup in his hand. Chase doesn’t seem to notice.

“Like sometimes she seems to see things that aren’t there, and mutters to herself about monsters and once I swear to god I saw her talking to thin air — you don’t think she’s,” for lack of better words Chase merely made a swirling gesture towards the side of his head. _Crazy._

“I don’t know,” Percy says. “I haven’t seen anything out of the ordinary. Maybe you should ask her about it.”

They had thought he was crazy once. They had thrown stones at him when he saved a kid from drowning simply by yanking him out of the water with his powers. _Unnatural,_ they’d whispered at him. _Whore,_ they’d whispered to his mother, tripping her whenever she went to the market.

One day his mother had come home and folded over onto herself and shook with silent sobs. He couldn’t remember her face, couldn’t remember the sound of her laugh and the feel of her arms encircling him. But the image of her hunched over in defeat had perceived through the millennia, burned into his brain.

“She’s not crazy,” he says finally. His voice comes out harsher than he intended it to. Chase looks up in surprise. “Don’t say that.”

“I didn’t dude, like _chill_ — “

Someone enters the coffee shop just then and the conversation drops off suddenly.

 

14\. mario kart and mortals

“Annabeth’s not coming home tonight,” Piper says, sprawling on their couch next to Percy, “so if you know - want to be nice to me, feel free to be.”

“What does being ‘nice’ entail?”

She threw a video game controller into his lap. “Mario Kart old man. I challenge thee to a duel and all that.”

“Mario Kart?” he asks, holding the controller by the strap.

Piper gasps. “Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of _Mario Kart_.”

She reaches over and readjusts the controller so it’s fitting more comfortably in his grip. “Get ready to be _schooled_ , Perseus.”

Mario Kart is rather fun, Percy discovers, although Piper is much better at him and he can’t seem to get above eighth place. He’s forgetting to be on his guard with her, instead, they’re eating popcorn and laughing as if the wedge had never been driven between them in the first place.

“So,” Piper says, after their tenth game or so, “Spill the tea.”

“What?”

“It’s an expression. It means tell me everything. All the details. Stat.”

“About what?”

“You and Annabeth,” she says as if it’s obvious.

“There’s no tea to spill.”

“That’s a lie,” she says, leaning forward. “Look, I know her comparing you to a servant was a low blow — but you can’t really think that she thinks of you that way.”

“I have been alive for thousands of years,” Percy finally says. “You mortals all like to pretend you’re something different, but in the end you’re all the same. Annabeth is not unlike anyone I’ve ever known. Even Sophie — “

He breaks off abruptly.

Piper quirks an eyebrow. “ _Sophie?”_

He really needs lessons on how to shut his mouth. “What I was saying,” he finally says, brushing away the dead girl’s ghost as if it’s a stray cobweb, “is that what Annabeth did didn't surprise me. I was foolish to go into debt with her, but I knew she didn’t like me as anything more than a tool for her to use.”

“I don’t think you’re giving her enough credit.”

“And you’re giving her too much,” Percy says, “Listen Pipes. I know heroes like her. Gods — I _was_ a hero like her. The gods use heroes like her up like they’re — what are those things you put in the remote?”

“Batteries.”

“Yes. They use them up like they’re batteries for the world and then they throw them out. They don’t care. Annabeth is someone who’s been discarded and she’s angry. I know how that feels. _I was her._ But I’ve been alive for over a thousand years and I’m not about to let my life get overturned by a twenty-year-old girl again — “

“Again?” Piper raises an eyebrow.

Percy hates himself. He really does. “That doesn’t matter,” he says. “What I’m trying to say is I learned the lengths that you mortals will go to to get power long ago, and I may be protecting you both, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to become your tool.”

“One day you’re going to tell me what happened that made you hate mortals so much,” Piper says cooly.

“I don’t — “

“You hate us as much as Annabeth hates — “ she points up so she doesn’t summon any unwanted deities. “Maybe both of you could have a hate party together sometime.”

Percy can’t think of what to say to this, but he’s saved from having to respond by Annabeth arriving herself. It must be raining outside, he hadn’t noticed. Her hair is plastered to her face with rainwater, and her clothes are clinging to her body.

“Did you go for a swim?” Piper asks.

“Umbrella broke,” Annabeth says, tossing the broken thing on the ground. It takes her a moment, but eventually she sees the position they have on the couch, the controllers and the bucket of popcorn. “Having fun, are we?”

“Might want to try it sometime,” Percy says in response.

Annabeth glares at him and disappears into her room. Piper shrugs and begins another match, which Percy, of course, loses spectacularly.

“Is that really the best you can do?” Annabeth challenges from behind him, leaving her room. She’s changed out of her wet clothes and into a fresh pair of pajamas, and she has a blanket held loosely around her shoulders. Her hair is still wet though, and Percy could offer to dry it for her.

He doesn’t.

She sits down between them, and Percy can still feel the cold radiating off of her. Piper fishes out another controller.

Turns out, Annabeth is worse than Percy.

“This is impossible!” She finally cries, slamming the controller down on the table. Piper bursts into peals of laughter and even Percy has to hide his smile.

 

15\. blue whipped cream

_Percy_

It’s not a real voice that wakes him up but rather the memory of a voice, the ghost of a voice, and Percy groans before he rolls over. He’s never gotten used to the nightmares.

He lays there for about ten minutes before he realizes he’s not about to go to sleep. He pulls on a blue hoodie and decides to find something to eat.

He’s surprised to find he’s not the only one awake. The kitchen light is dimmed to a low setting, but the glow of her laptop screen is bright.

He sits down across from her and she startles.

“It’s two in the morning,” he says.

“I could say the same to you.”

He looks down at his hands, “Nightmare.”

“I didn’t think gods could get nightmares.”

“Technically I’m not a god right now.”

“Ah,” Annabeth says, “the perils of being mortal.”

“Why are you awake?”

She pauses for a moment before saying, “Nightmare.”

Percy nods, before venturing to the cabinet. He’d recently discovered hot chocolate, and he had to admit that it was probably the most acceptable human treat. Annabeth doesn’t say anything as he makes it, instead refocusing on her laptop.

She’s surprised when he sets a mug down in front of her, her eyebrows raising. “How did you make blue whipped cream?”

“Magic,” he says.

She takes a careful sip and doesn’t it say it’s bad which Percy takes to mean it’s good. “I thought you were done being nice to me.”

“Was I ever nice to you? I’ve got to go back and reexamine my priorities.”

She snorts, accidentally inhaling some of her whipped cream. She wipes most of it off, but a spot of blue clings to the tip of her nose.

They finish their hot chocolate in silence, and Percy decides to try and fall asleep again. He’s in the doorway to the kitchen when her voice stops him. She’s an echo of a memory, crouched over her laptop with bags under his eyes. As if he’s known her simultaneously for a moment and for a lifetime. He doesn’t know what that means, and a part of it terrifies him.

“Thank you,” she says softly.

 

16\. scout

 

Percy really couldn’t be expected to leave the puppy sitting out in the rain, now could he?

From the look on Annabeth and Piper’s face when he pulls the dog out of his jacket like a rabbit pulls a dog out of a hat — apparently he could be expected to leave it behind.

“She was _cold,_ ” Percy says, dropping the puppy on the ground. She moves off to sniff the apartment in curiosity.

“She’s also a living being that needs food and water,” Annabeth says. “You can’t just drop her in a new environment and expect her to survive.”

“I can give her food and water — “ Percy protests.

As if in answer, the puppy pees on the floor.

“Oh my god,” Piper says.

“Don’t —” Annabeth begins, but the puppy cocks it’s head at her and begins to wag her tail. The puppy moves to sniff curiously at her leg, her tail wagging faster and faster.

“Don’t crack — “ Piper begins to say, but Annabeth crouches down and the puppy lost immediately rolls over and offers her belly to be rubbed.

“I — oh my gods, she can stay,” Annabeth says, and Piper cries out in dismay before eventually giving in and giving the dog a vigorous scratch behind the ears.

“Did you hear that?” Percy croons to the small dog, using his powers to clean up her mess quickly. “You can stay!”

He flops down on his belly next to her, and the puppy licks his nose.

“I didn’t think gods cared about dogs,” Annabeth says suddenly. He looks up at her. She’s looking at him as if he’s just flipped the page and presented something new to her, and he’s not sure how it makes him feel.

“Dogs are so much better than any other creature in the universe, the better question is, why _wouldn’t_ we?” he deflects.

The puppy gives off a little bark, and Percy sweeps her into his arms and rolls over, holding her above his head. “You’re perfect,” he says to her, “absolutely _perfect_.”

“What’s her name?” Annabeth asks. She crouches down next to him, closer than she’s been in weeks. She reaches out a hand and the puppy immediately squirms to reach her. Percy passes her over and Annabeth giggles — actually _giggles_ — a little bit when the puppy licks her face.

“I don’t know,” Percy says, “…maybe Scout?”

“Scout?” She asks in disbelief. “That’s not a very Greek name.”

Percy shrugs. “But it’s _her_ name.”

 _I’m done with Greek names_ is what he doesn’t say.

Piper joins them on the floor and the puppy is beyond elated. Both girls are beaming, everything in the past forgotten for just a moment. Annabeth sets Scout down on the floor and the puppy dances around ecstatically around their feet.

“Welcome home Scout,” Annabeth says, and something inside of Percy swells to answer the sound of her voice.

 _No,_ he tells himself sternly. _You’re not allowed to like her, let alone like_ that.

 

17\. cell phones

Piper takes him to buy a cellphone on a Tuesday.

“What if something happens to Scout and we need you there _right away?”_

“Iris message,” he says, “I thought cellphones _attracted_ monsters.”

“I mean —” Piper shrugs. “They do if you’re calling someone, but texting and Snapchat don’t seem to be that bad. Plus, isn’t that what you’re for?”

“Snap…what?”

“Oh my gods, you poor uncultured god, you. You are going to _love_ this.”

She makes him spend his paycheck too, which seems kind of backwards, and they hand him one of those little black squares mortals are always on.

“This cost four hundred dollars?” Percy demands. “I worked like — it’s tiny!”

“Shhh,” Piper whispers to him, she grabs it and begins typing on it with a fast intensity that makes Percy’s fingers hurt just looking at it.

“What are you doing?”

“Putting Annabeth and I’s numbers in, so you can text us when you’re in trouble.”

“You mean when _you’re_ in trouble.”

Piper rolls her eyes. “Sure, Seaweed Brain.” She hands him the phone back and he looks down at it.

There hadn’t been cell phones back when Sophie had been alive, but there had been phones and telegrams, and other methods of communication. He’d never _owned_ one before. Who would he call? Sophie’s ghost? His father?

 _Piper and Annabeth_ he thinks. There’s something else here, a sign of acceptance.

 _You’re their servant,_ he reminds himself, not _their friend._

He slips the phone into his pocket regardless.

 

18\. history and monsters

Annabeth’s eyes are suspiciously red when she gets home, and while she and Percy aren’t necessarily friends, she usually acknowledges his presence in _some way._ Maybe it’s a scowl, maybe a nod, maybe a glance that makes him feel like he’s been bathed in cold water. Sometimes it’s more, a _hello,_ a worn out smile.

He always feels like they’re breaking some sort of rule when they’re nice to each other.

Today she just slams the door to her bedroom behind her and doesn’t retreat even when Scout paws at the door.

He texts Piper. He’s still slow with typing, and it takes a painstaking minute before he’s able to send _annabeth is mad._

Piper responds several minutes later, his phone chirruping with the arrival of her text. _what did you do?_

_nothing._

_oh really?_

_yes._

Then, biting his lip, _what should i do?_

Before Piper can respond, Annabeth’s door opens. She looks more put together than when she first arrived,her hair tied in a knot in the back of her head, dressed in a gray sweater and a pair of blue jeans.

He covers his phone with his hand, feeling guilty all of the sudden for texting Piper.

“I think Chase’s best friend is a monster,” she says, all at once. Percy looks up at her.

“What makes you think that?”

“I caught him in the alleyway eating a woman,” Annabeth says this matter of factly, but there’s a slight shake to her hand that told Percy she was more affected by this than she was revealing.

“Oh,” Percy says.

There’s another pause. “Chase broke up with me,” Annabeth finishes her story, “because apparently, I’m ‘crazy’ now.”

One of Percy’s hands tightens into a fist, but Annabeth doesn’t notice and he pretends that it doesn’t happen. Instead, he stands, his kitchen chair scraping backwards.

“We need to take care of this monster,” he says.

“We do,” Annabeth agrees. “Except — I don’t know where to find him. Except at — well. Some of Chase’s flatmates are hosting a party tomorrow night. He could be there.”

“Then we go to the party,” Percy says easily.

“I think Chase is inviting a girl to this party,” Annabeth says.

Percy raises an eyebrow. “And this is important, because?”

She crosses her arms. Raises an eyebrow. She’s rarely shameful in anything she does, and this is no exception. “I want you to pretend to be my date at this party.”

This is the part where if Percy had water in his mouth he would have spat it out. “Me…with you?”

“Is there a problem?”

“You hate me,” he said, nodding at her folded arms. “

“And you hate me,” Annabeth says. “Shouldn’t be a problem pretending to be something else for a couple of hours. I just don’t — I don’t want to look like I’m desperate. I just want to go and kill this monster before it can hurt any more people. Plus — I don’t think Chase trusts me anymore.”

“Why?”

“The reason I didn’t kill the monster when I found it is because he stopped me,” she says. “He thought I was just randomly attacking his friend — at least the mist substituted my dagger for my first — and then went on to say how he’d found someone so much _better_ than me and less crazy — “ she cuts off.

“Why don’t you just bring Piper?”“I don’t want to endanger her,” Annabeth says, sitting in the chair across from him.

“What was it?”

“I don’t know,” she says, pressing her hands tightly together to stop them shaking. “I don’t, I don’t want you to think I care about Chase. I don’t, but I just — I hate being called crazy.”

“Where I grew up,” Percy says, surprising himself with his words, “anything that was slightly out of the ordinary was crazy. You can’t imagine what they do to a bastard kid who can control water.”

“I forget sometimes that you were mortal once,” Annabeth says.

“I’m mortal now.”

“Not really,” Annabeth says. “You’ve not had your godly powers for what — two months? You’re just having an extended holiday.”

“Other than when we were fighting against Kronos’ armies, I haven’t had my powers for seventy-three years.”

Annabeth’s eyebrows shoot towards her forehead. “I thought — “

“Well, these last few months have been hard since I had my powers back for a couple of years so I could help rebuild,” Percy says, “but Zeus was never fond of me in the first place and decided I need more time to ‘reflect on my actions’.”

“I thought you were here because of something you did in the war.”

“Not that war,” Percy says.

Annabeth’s trying to do the math he can see. He knew because she was biting her lower lip and her eyes were far away, her fingers twitching slightly. Why had he said so much? Had he really wanted her to know?

He moves right as she interprets what year he must have lost his powers. Her mouth opens, her eyes widen.

“I’ll go with you tomorrow,” he says. “I’ve got to go to work.”

Annabeth lifts her hand as if she’s going to try and stop him from leaving, as if she can keep him anchored here. He thinks, if she tried, he’d let her anchor him. But she doesn’t try. Her hand falls to the table with a dull _thud._

He doesn’t have to work, but the small confines of the apartment are starting to feel more like a prison cell and the echo of Sophie’s laugh is ringing in the back of his head.

He runs until his chest is heaving and his heart is pounding, his breath coming in short gasps. Until he’s reminded of his own persisting mortality.

He stays out for several more hours, until he’s sure Annabeth’s asleep and he can avoid her in peace.

 

19\. lingering echoes

 

Annabeth waits until Piper has departed for her evening class before she gives Percy a meaningful look and goes to get ready for the party. Preparing for a party is less about style and more about weapons, Percy reflects as he lines his denim jacket with daggers and bottles of water (you never knew when you needed some liquid.)

“Are you ready?” Annabeth asks, stepping out into the living room. She’s wearing a lovely blue tank top and a pair of jeans, but her shoes are meant for running and she has several daggers thrust through her belt and one wrapped up in her blonde curls.

Something about the curve of her throat and the tight of her fit of her tank top does something to Percy’s nerves — stretches them out and tangles them around like they’re string.

She hasn’t asked him about yesterday, about the secret he’d admitted quietly to her when she’d seemed on the brink of what? Annabeth didn’t seem like she cried much to him.

“You - er, look nice,” he says lamely. Annabeth smiles, and he’s surprised to find that it’s a real smile.

She scratches Scout behind the ears to spare her from having to answer.

Neither of them have a car so they decide to take the train, which is about a ten minute walk from their apartment. Annabeth’s hands are dangling at her sides and Percy resists the urge to hold one of her hands — what is he on? Could Gods turned Mortals get secondhand…he didn’t know? Drunk? Could mortals get secondhand drunk?

“What are you thinking about?” Annabeth asks unexpectedly.

“In this light — “ Percy begins, and then breaks himself off. What was he about to say? _In this light you look more beautiful than Aphrodite._ There are storm clouds swelling over the mountains, casting everything in shades of blue including Annabeth, the hollows of throat pools of navy, her skin a light contrast.

“What about this light?”

“It’s just…blue,” he finishes lamely. “Where’s this party?”

“This way,” Annabeth tugs lightly on his arm.

 _Do you know?_ He wants to ask her, _how hard I’ve tried to hate you?_

He hears the party before he sees it, a deep throbbing music that is seeping into the earth, accompanied by a few drunken laughs, by a few peals of laughter and red cups in the gutter. Parties had never been like this when he was young.

Annabeth strides into the party without turning to see if he was following.

Mortals are pressed up and against each other, laughing, kissing, hollering, something that Percy thinks is supposed to be dancing but mostly looks like a few jutting limbs here and there. The entire place smells like beer and weed.

“Take my hand,” Annabeth finally says, turning around to look at him. She’s not in shades of blue anymore, but glowing red with the odd light in the the party. She’s holding out her hand.

“Why?” He asks.

She frowns. “Unless you want to get separated, you better hold on.”

He slips his hand into her’s and she tugs him after her as if she’s a normal girl instead of a demigod and he’s a normal boy instead of a god turned mortal and Percy’s rather ashamed to admit that he _likes_ it.

She pulls him through the party until they reach a larger room, jam-packed with people. She stumbles backwards as some drunk boys careen past and Percy catches her. Her back is pressed against his chest, his arm looped loosely around her waist. He can hear her heart pounding in her chest.

She pulls away, “Sorry,” she mutters. “Do you see him?”

She’d shown him a picture before they’d come, and now Percy squints at the people partying, trying to discern one face from the next.

“We’re too far away,” he finally says. “We’re going to have to get closer.”

Annabeth nods. “Dance with me.”

“What?”

“I’m assuming you know how to dance,” she says, eyes flashing. “Don’t you?”

“Of - of course I know to dance,” Percy says. “But dance?”

He can’t quite tell, but he thinks that Annabeth’s cheeks have turned pink. “Everyone is dancing,” she says, “it’s less suspicious if we dance too.”

Percy doesn’t know if he agrees with that logic or if he just wants to dance with _her_ —

The last time he had danced had been the night Sophie died. He’d danced with her on a beach in France, a dirty yellow dress swirling around her knees and her hair tied in a frizzy knot.

“I don’t know any modern dances,” Percy says, but his arms go around Annabeth anyways. They slide into the crowd easily, effortlessly.

If they lived different lives, Percy thought to himself, they would have been fantastic fighting partners. He finds his movements matching Annabeth’s smoothly as she whirls away and then back again, her dress flaring out with each twirl. They slide through the crowd effortlessly, dodging each flailing limb with the sort of grace that only comes from instinct.

Someone shoves into her from behind and she comes crashing back into Percy, her chin smashing against his chest and the top of her head brushing against his chin. She pulls back her face and they lock eyes, her mouth slightly agape.

What would it be like, he thinks to himself, to just lean down and kiss her?

“He’s behind us,” Annabeth whispers, her eyes focusing on a point over his shoulder.

Percy shakes off the thoughts as if they’re cobwebs. What was he _thinking_? Hadn’t he learned his lesson the first time?

He swings them around effortlessly and sees the boy she’s talking about. He’s kissing another girl like he wants to devour her (which considering his track record, _could_ be happening later) and his hands are digging into the wall behind him.

Percy moves first, reaching the boy and pulling him away brutally. The woman makes a noise of surprise and perhaps dismay, but the boy is snarling suddenly. His mouth is filled with razor-sharp teeth, his eyes a luminous yellow.

“What are you?” Percy snarls, because in all his years he’s never seen something like _this_ —

“Godling,” the thing hisses, “Little God Boy. I’d love to taste your flesh, your blood — “ a long tongue flickers out between it’s lips and licks at it’s teeth.

The mortal girl is screaming something about this boy having a knife — which apparently is what the Mist has decided how this boy should be dangerous — but Percy slams the thing against the wall. Annabeth’s there in a heartbeat, and the thing’s eyes widen at the sight of her. “Demigod,” it slavers, “I tasted your sorrow back in the alleyway — so many tears — “

Percy looks over at Annabeth, which ends up being an enormous mistake. The think lunges forward and bites down on his shoulder.

Percy cries out, ichor spurting from his wound and drops the thing. Annabeth is there in a split second and dispatches the creature with a quick movement of her knife but not before it looks at Percy and hisses —

“Dark heart.”

Percy falls as if he’s been stung, and people are screaming screaming screaming, and Annabeth’s grabbing his arm and pulling him to his feet.

“We need to go!” she’s saying, “come on Percy, Percy — _Perseus_ — please — “

He lets her pull him from the party. The storm has begun outside, and the rain is pouring down in large sheets from the clouds above.

People from the party are streaming past them in droves and somewhere a siren begins to shriek. Percy falls to his knees, his wound pulsing, his mind swimming.

“Percy,” Annabeth says, the rain already sticking her hair to her forehead. She drops to her knees too and she’s pressing something against his wound while her other phone reaches for her phone — “Piper? Come quick — “ he hears her say.

Everything goes black.

 

20\. a beach in france

 

There is a buzzing sound above and Percy knows what comes next, what _always_ comes next —

There’s a dark stain spreading across the sand.

Her breath staggers through her chest like an old man trying to climb up a flight of stairs. She locks eyes with him, those dark blues eyes that are the color of the sky right before a storm —

“I always knew you had a dark heart,” Sophie says.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> woo woo, lets have a party.


End file.
